Polished Boutique Spa — Local services in Seattle

Last year my sister and I were trying to find a great nails place in Capitol Hill so we gave Polished a try. We made an appointment 24 hours in advance and showed up 15 minutes prior to our appointment time.

The staff was incredibly rude to us. When we walked in no one greeted us so we stood awkwardly for a few minutes. Finally someone yelled from across the salon and said "What do you want? Do you have an appointment?" To which we replied yes. Then she yelled again "Well you should let us know when you arrive so we don't cancel your booking. Go sit in those chairs". She pointed to some pedicure chairs in the corner. She was also doing someone's nails at the time and practically yelling in her face. The whole salon was silent during this interaction.

We were never given time to pick out our polish color for our toes so we were already feet-in-tub when they asked. My sister asked for "Light peach" to which the woman came back with orange. We politely said that wasn't really what she had in mind and asked for just a "light pink". This prompted more yelling from the originally woman - "what do you want? why didn't you pick your color?" etc... It was extremely awkward and embarrasing.

We went back one more time after this and had a very similar experience, more yelling and confusion. Instead of getting up to talk to you, you will be yelled...

I witnessed a rather unpleasant exchange while getting my nails done at this place today. I watched a Black customer (her race is relevant) ask to speak to the Owner and in a calm way say that she was giving direct feedback about not being happy with her service. She tried to explain her concerns but the owner didn’t seem to want to listen and abruptly got up and walked away. The customer then called out that she felt her feedback wasn’t being heard because she was Black. She did not yell or raise her voice at all. However, the owner then started getting VERY defensive and yelling on top of her voice that she is not discriminating. She just continued to yell and dismissed whatever the customer was calmly trying to say. Kudos to the Black customer who kept her cool, got up, paid, and left with her dignity intact. The owner then tried to justify herself to the other customers by citing some random bad experience she had with another customer a year back. She was using that incident to justify her yelling to this calm customer. I think the owner handled this VERY poorly and needs to reflect on how she takes calm and respectfully delivered customer feedback. Defensively yelling on top of her voice showed a lack of professionalism and hints at deeper issues with...

I've been going here twice a month for 2-3 years now and the manager says to me last month 'This is your first time here, right?' 🙄 The same manager who has been there the entire time I've been shelling out $60-$100 twice monthly. They do a subpar job (look at the thumb nail in the attached picture) and I keep going because I'm lazy and they're right next to my apartment. But this really is the last time. The nails in the picture cost me $58 plus tip. They never have the colors I want and don't even think about asking them to do a nail design. I'm trying Broadway Nails next and hoping they're as good as I've heard (edit: they are not).

Also, don't let them near your eyebrows. I made the mistake of getting my brows waxed there one and one time only. They pulled out way too much hair on my right brow and I had to fill it in with an eye pencil for a month.

Edit: Updating my review from 1 to 3 stars because I've figured out if I keep my nail requests simple, then Polished does a good job. Also, they manage to fit me in as close to the time I want even if I'm trying to schedule last minute AND they call me back if they're not able to answer right away. This is a big deal in my experience with nail...